Being Prepared

Is there such a thing as being TOO prepared? That’s a tough one to answer, and everyone has different view points. You have probably heard of, or watched, the show Doomsday Preppers. These people, called Preppers, are preparing for a catastrophic event. But should you ONLY be storing food, learning survival skills, how to operate without modern conveniences if you are fearing a cataclysmic event? You don’t have to believe in doomsday scenarios to prepare your family for an emergency. Things like snowstorms, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons…those are ALL natural disasters that occur on a regular basis. If your family was snowed in for two weeks without power, what would you do? Are you PREPARED?

There are many things you can do to prepare, even if you aren’t thinking “end of civilization” scenarios. Growing a garden, canning or dehydrating, storing bulk foods, putting together first aid kits, having your own source of food like chickens, goats or cows, all multi-purpose animals that could help sustain your family. Homesteaders are generally people who want to learn to be self sufficient, lead a more simple life. In a way, they also are “preppers”. They generally have livestock and/or fowl, they garden and can or dehydrate their food.

Being prepared doesn’t mean you are crazy, it means you want to be prepared to protect and provide for your family if the worst was to happen. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on canned food, or survival gear. You don’t have to believe in a zombie apocalypse, I certainly don’t. What I DO believe is that I want to be prepared, to feed and protect my family. And all the while teach my children values and a way of life that is generally forgotten. Teach them they can provide for themselves, and they don’t have to rely on grocery stores, and especially not the government. My children will not grow up believing they are entitled to handouts and that others should do the work for them. They will learn how to do for themselves, and to help others, to be kind in a world that is not. They will grow up being prepared. Prepared to help themselves, and to help others. Prepared to take on a world filled with diversity and strife, and not only to survive, but to flourish.